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Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag to mix multiplayer into single player

One of the most fascinating aspects of the upcoming Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is how the game promises to inject a little multiplayer into the game's single player sections. This subtle crossover will only occur during the game's modern day segments, which are now presented in first-person perspective. In these sections of the game, players control Abstergo employees researching the pirate Edward Kenway, and it seems you won't be alone.

"The biggest thing that we were getting into with Assassin's Creed IV is the concept that even in a single-player story, that you're connected. You [will] feel that there's other people also playing the game and somehow you can interact, or somehow you can take advantage with each other," teased the game's director, Ashraf Ismail, in a Eurogamer interview.

"The coworkers with you - we want you to feel that your friends are co-workers. So other people playing Black Flag are also research analysts. So when they can find stuff in the world, they can share it with you. When they do research, and when you're doing research, you can share that information and you get a boost for it."

These parts of the game will also reward long time fans, with a promising meta-narrative that ties the series together. "The reason you're researching Edward Kenway is he did something very special in the past, very specific," Ismail explains. "Fans, especially people who know the deep, deep details of the lore, they'll see what his purpose was. He did something very significant that actually touches upon the other games."

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is out on November 1st for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC. A next gen version will follow for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.